bigglesfandomcom-20200215-history
The Adventures of Biggles (comic)
The Adventures of Biggles was a series of comics first published by Action Comics of Sydney from 1952. Up to 75 issues were believed to have been put out.The issues bore a byline of Capt. W. E. Johns with artwork by Albert De Vine and later John Dixon. Information about these comics is very spotty as the issues are quite rare. Much of the information here comes from a number of excellent websites which have gathered information about Australian comics, including one website by a French Biggles enthusiast. As can be seen from the table below, most of the earlier issues were loosely based on various story plots of W. E. Johns but some of the later ones were reimagined. The comics were published in Johns' lifetime and there is evidence that he approved them or at least endorsed their production. According to Australian researcher Kevin Patrick, Issue #17 has a type written note which states that the comics were produced in Australia under an arrangement with Capt. W. E. Johns and that Australian written scripts were sent to England for approval before publication. The comics are notable for their well drawn and accurate depictions of aircraft in flight. In many cases, Biggles flies up to date jet aircraft appropriate to the era. According to Patrick, who interviewed John Dixon, one of the comic artists, Johns had written to the publishers commenting that Biggles did not fly jets. Probably at that time, Johns had not written Biggles in the Terai. Copies of the original Australian comics are extremely rare. As can be seen from the table below, not even the total number of issues and all the titles are known. You are encouraged to add to this page as much as possible. Each issue of the Australian comic was 24 pages, consisting of two stories of about 9-12 pages each or a single story in 2 parts of 9-12 pages. Strato Publications Ltd, of London, later reprinted the stories in the UK in 9 comic issues. The Strato comics were thicker, and usually over 60 pages. They usually comprised up to 3 Biggles stories drawn from different Australian issues and also included non-Biggles stories, ncluding some Gimlet. The cover art did not always match the equivalent Australian issue. In the table below of the Strato issues, the serial number of the original Australian issue is indicated if known. However because the information available of the Australian issues is spotty, this is not always possible. List of Original Australian Issues and the stories they contain (work in progress) List of UK Strato issues References External Links and Sources *BIGGLES en Bande dessinée : Australie - this page from a French website contains excellent research and includes thumbnails of most of the comic issues. *Comics Down Under - this blog page by Kevin Patrick contains original research, including evidence that W. E. Johns endorsed the comics. *Ausreprints - this database of Australian comics contains bibliographic information about the various comic issues. Category:Derivative works Category:Research Topics Category:Derivative series Category:Work in progress